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Blushing Aspens

I recently received this email from a former student – Lois. I would like to share with you what she sent me.Frieda, here are a couple of photos of Blushing Aspens which I finally finished last night. I am really pleased with the results (although it can’t compare to yours). I made it for my sister who has a long, modern glass table which will really be a perfect setting for it. She has seen it at various stages of completion and has fallen totally in love with it. I’ll be giving it to her at Thanksgiving. Thanks so much for making this lovely gift possible.I think Lois did a “BEAUTIFUL” job, don’t you?This is the only “pieced” pattern that I sell. It originally was featured in the Skinny Quilts Table Runner II.It does make a wonderful table runner and I keep the one I made on my table all for the whole season of Autumn.My version.This is another table runner that I made and was featured on Quilting Arts TV.This one is fused and it wears like iron. The kids have it and it sits on their table all year long. It probably gets washed once a week and looks GREAT!You can never have too many table runners.This one is so easy to make. As a holiday gift from me to you, here are the basic directions.Have fun.SUPPLY LIST:

1 yard of multicolored fabric for the front of the table runner. You could use any of my fabric gradations for this project.

1 yard of backing fabric.

2 – 1/4 yard pieces of different color green fabrics. Frieda Green is what I used for this project. It has two shades of green in one yard piece.

Rip the backing fabric in half and sew the two halves together to create a back for this table runner that is 20” x 60”.

Cut your batting to 20” x 60” piece and spray baste this to the ironed backing fabric. You now have a base to work on.

Use a ruler and mark the center of this piece on all four sides as a reference for laying out your other pieces.

Rip your gradation into the following measurements.

I ripped this project to give it a frayed finished look.

I ripped my fabric keeping the color in mind as to how I was going to put it back together again. Refer to the picture.

2 pieces that are 9” x 27” these are the two center sections. (originally I fused all the fabrics, but I think the spray baste will work just as well for this section.)

4 pieces that are 3.5” x 27” these are the four side sections.

2 pieces that are 3.5” x 24” these are the two end sections.

Spray baste the top of the batting on your backing and batting section.

Lay out the two 9″x 27″ pieces on the center of your batting. Slightly overlapping the center of the two pieces.

Lay out the four side pieces along the sides slightly overlapping the edge of the center pieces.

Lay out the two end pieces slightly over lapping the edges of the previous pieces. Make sure there is no white batting showing.

With a fun decorative thread in your sewing machine, run a straight stitch along each edge of your over lapped fabrics. This will hold all the pieces in place. The edges will fray some but that is the look of this piece. If you have a walking foot be sure to use it.

Fuse your two green fabrics. Allow the fusible to cool and peel away the paper as you use each color.

On the “release paper” this is the paper you peel off of the fused fabric, use a black extra fine sharpie marker to create an elliptical shaped leaf. My leaves are about 8” long by about 4” wide.

Place the marker side of the paper against the fused side of the fused fabric and press with a hot dry iron.

Press with a hot dry iron. The marker will transfer to the back of the fused fabric. It’s a miracle.

Remove the paper and place the fabric fused side up on the back side of your cutting mat. You want to turn your mat over to the back side when you are cutting using decorative blades as they can scar your mat.

Using a wavy decorative blade in your rotary cutter, cut out on the black line.

Make ten leaves and ten stems, alternating the colors.

To cut the stems out cut diagonally on the bias across the center of each fabric. Make five cuts on each fabric that are 1/2” wide at one end to nothing on the other end. Do this before you cut out your leaves.

Transfer your leaf design to the remaining parts of the fused fabric.

On a piece of release paper or parchment paper, or pressing sheet, fuse the stems to the center of each leaf.

Peel the leaves with the stems off of the paper and place on the center of your table runner. Arrange them all first and then fuse them in place.

With a green thread in your sewing machine and bobbin, sew a free motion zigzag up the center of each stem and then stipple or sew curley ques inside each of the leaves.

Switch to another matching color or variegated color and stipple or sew curley ques on the rest of the table runner.

Square up the table runner.

Create the fused bindings from the remaining background fabric.

Fuse the fabric. Cut strips that are 1 1/4” wide using the decorative blade on one side of each strip.

Finish the edge of the table runner with the fused binding.

Machine stitch along the decorative edge of the binding. You can refer to the tab at the top of the page for a more thorough step by step of a fused binding.

DONE

Put on your holiday table with food and drink and sit down with your family and friends and enjoy a hard deserved holiday drink!!

Happy Holidays

4 responses on “Blushing Aspens”

Thank you for the gift of that table runner project! It’s beautiful and just the thing I need to make. Maybe it’s just the thing that I need to make more than 1 of and give all but one as holiday gifts.

This is lovely – and thanks for the tutorial. Would love a tutorial on the quilting done on it. I recognize the design from other quilts you have done but have not yet managed to learn it well and replicate it.